A man who fired six gunshots, one of which struck a man in the leg at Mifflin Place last year, was sentenced Monday to 18 to 36 years in state prison.
Bilal I. Sabur, 31, who was found guilty Jan. 23 of shooting Dwaine Jeffreys Jan. 28, 2011, in the 400 block of Mifflin Place, but not guilty of attempted homicide, was sentenced by Judge Marc F. Lovecchio.
"This sentence will protect us from a continued pattern of behavior," Lovecchio said. "You shot six times. This is scary stuff."
"This defendant is a danger to society and a danger to the community," said First Assistant District Attorney Kenneth Osokow calling on Lovecchio to go beyond the aggravated sentencing range.
Sabur was found guilty of aggravated assault with intent to cause serious bodily injury, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, possession of an instrument of crime, carrying a firearm without a license, recklessly endangering, conspiracy to tamper with and fabricate physical evidence and simple assault.
At the trial, he described himself as a drug dealer, not a killer.
"You had a perpetrator who stood here and basically put this on me," Sabur said. "Somebody's got to do the time."
Sabur has refused to admit he shot anyone.
However, police found six shells at the scene. A couple of the bullets hit the building in the alley where Sabur used the gun and others struck the spouting, Lovecchio said.
Osokow noted it was at least the fourth time Sabur was convicted of carrying firearms without a license.
During his time at the county prison, Sabur was written up for disciplinary problems, and is alleged to have been in possession of a toothbrush fashioned into a weapon called a "shank."
Ever since he was a teenager, Sabur consistently was involved in crimes involving drugs, guns and violence.
Sabur's mother wrote to the judge before the sentencing, giving an indication of the struggle to survive a life growing up on the mean streets of Philadelphia.
"I can't be there," she wrote. "Please sentence him to a jail near me."
Sabur's sister was at the sentencing. She said whenever he went to job interviews they denied him any employment because of his record.
"The reason I found myself in Williamsport," Sabur said, "was in 2008 I found myself in the I.C.U.," he said. "I moved here to get away from the life of being a victim of gun violence."
But Lovecchio said he could not condone such violence.
"Instead of coming here and getting away from what you obviously wanted to - you brought it here."
